Crime & Justice

Government Unable To Track Hundreds Of Parents It Separated From Their Children

A Brazilian mother, who asked to be identified only as W.R., was reunified with with her 9-year-old son A.R. in Boston on July 16.
Michael Dwyer/AP

Vanessa Romo | NPR|July 24, 2018

The Trump administration has told a federal judge that it has reunited more than 1,000 parents with their children after the families were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, but it has lost track of hundreds more parents.

The data, submitted in court hearing on Tuesday, suggests that, by the government's accounting, it will largely meet a second deadline imposed by the judge to bring eligible immigrant families back together.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw set a deadline of this Thursday late last month, giving the government 30 days to reunite more than 2,500 children, ages 5 to 17, with their parents. He set an earlier deadline of July 10 for children under 5.

In the older group, the administration confirmed that 1,012 adults have been reunited with their children so far, and another 600 are set to meet over the next two days, pending transportation and weather-related delays.

But lawyers for the government also revealed that as many as 463 parents may have been deported or have voluntarily left the U.S. without their children. Justice Department attorneys were unable to offer any details about the circumstances under which they were removed, where they might reside and why their children may have been left behind.

The government is still trying to determine whether reunification is required or even possible for another 260 children. They may have been released to other family members or are in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to Sarah Fabian, an attorney for the Department of Justice.

Fabian reported 127 parents had waived their reunification rights explaining that parents often base their decision "on the desire to have the child released to another relative."

Sabraw commended the government for its swift efforts calling it a "remarkable achievement." But he also ordered the government to release more information about the hundreds of parents who were removed from the U.S. without their children and those who waived their right to reunification.

The judge described the government's failure to keep track of split families a "deeply troubling reality" of a policy that separated people "without forethought."